1 Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.
2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon us.
3 Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt.
4 Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud.
1 [[A Song H7892 of degrees.]] H4609 Unto thee lift I up H5375 mine eyes, H5869 O thou that dwellest H3427 in the heavens. H8064
2 Behold, as the eyes H5869 of servants H5650 look unto the hand H3027 of their masters, H113 and as the eyes H5869 of a maiden H8198 unto the hand H3027 of her mistress; H1404 so our eyes H5869 wait upon the LORD H3068 our God, H430 until that he have mercy H2603 upon us.
3 Have mercy H2603 upon us, O LORD, H3068 have mercy H2603 upon us: for we are exceedingly H7227 filled H7646 with contempt. H937
4 Our soul H5315 is exceedingly H7227 filled H7646 with the scorning H3933 of those that are at ease, H7600 and with the contempt H937 of the proud. H3238 H1343 H1349
1 Unto thee do I lift up mine eyes, O thou that sittest in the heavens.
2 Behold, as the eyes of servants `look' unto the hand of their master, As the eyes of a maid unto the hand of her mistress; So our eyes `look' unto Jehovah our God, Until he have mercy upon us.
3 Have mercy upon us, O Jehovah, have mercy upon us; For we are exceedingly filled with contempt.
4 Our soul is exceedingly filled With the scoffing of those that are at ease, And with the contempt of the proud. Psalm 124 A Song of Ascents; of David.
1 A Song of the Ascents. Unto Thee I have lifted up mine eyes, O dweller in the heavens.
2 Lo, as eyes of men-servants `Are' unto the hand of their masters, As eyes of a maid-servant `Are' unto the hand of her mistress, So `are' our eyes unto Jehovah our God, Till that He doth favour us.
3 Favour us, O Jehovah, favour us, For greatly have we been filled with contempt,
4 Greatly hath our soul been filled With the scorning of the easy ones, With the contempt of the arrogant!
1 {A Song of degrees.} Unto thee do I lift up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.
2 Behold, as the eyes of servants [look] unto the hand of their masters, as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress, so our eyes [are directed] to Jehovah our God, until he be gracious unto us.
3 Be gracious unto us, O Jehovah, be gracious unto us; for we are exceedingly filled with contempt.
4 Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease, with the contempt of the proud.
1 > To you I do lift up my eyes, You who sit in the heavens.
2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress; So our eyes look to Yahweh, our God, Until he has mercy on us.
3 Have mercy on us, Yahweh, have mercy on us, For we have endured much contempt.
4 Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scoffing of those who are at ease, With the contempt of the proud.
1 <A Song of the going up.> To you my eyes are lifted up, even to you whose seat is in the heavens.
2 See! as the eyes of servants are turned to the hands of their masters, and the eyes of a servant-girl to her owner, so our eyes are waiting for the Lord our God, till he has mercy on us.
3 Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us: for all men are looking down on us.
4 For long enough have men of pride made sport of our soul.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 123
Commentary on Psalms 123 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Upward Glance to the Lord in Times of Contempt
This Psalm is joined to the preceding Psalm by the community of the divine name Jahve our God . Alsted (died 1638) gives it the brief, ingenious inscription oculus sperans . It is an upward glance of waiting faith to Jahve under tyrannical oppression. The fact that this Psalm appears in a rhyming form, “as scarcely any other piece in the Old Testament” (Reuss), comes only from those inflexional rhymes which creep in of themselves in the tephilla style.
The destinies of all men, and in particular of the church, are in the hand of the King who sits enthroned in the unapproachable glory of the heavens and rules over all things, and of the Judge who decides all things. Up to Him the poet raises his eyes, and to Him the church, together with which he may call Him “Jahve our God,” just as the eyes of servants are directed towards the hand of their lord, the eyes of a maid towards the hand of her mistress; for this hand regulates the whole house, and they wait upon their winks and signs with most eager attention. Those of Israel are Jahve's servants, Israel the church is Jahve's maid. In His hand lies its future. At length He will take compassion on His own. Therefore its longing gaze goes forth towards Him, without being wearied, until He shall graciously turn its distress. With reference to the i of היּשׁבי , vid., on Psalms 113:1-9, Psalms 114:1-8. אדוניהם is their common lord; for since in the antitype the sovereign Lord is meant, it will be conceived of as plur. excellentiae , just as in general it occurs only rarely (Genesis 19:2, Genesis 19:18; Jeremiah 27:4) as an actual plural.
The second strophe takes up the “be gracious unto us” as it were in echo. It begins with a Kyrie eleison , which is confirmed in a crescendo manner after the form of steps. The church is already abundantly satiated with ignominy. רב is an abstract “much,” and רבּה , Psalms 62:3, something great (vid., Böttcher, Lehrbuch , §624). The subjectivizing, intensive להּ accords with Psalms 120:6 - probably an indication of one and the same author. בּוּז is strengthened by לעג , like בּז in Ezekiel 36:4. The article of הלּעג is restrospectively demonstrative: full of such scorn of the haughty (Ew. §290, d ). הבּוּז is also retrospectively demonstrative; but since a repetition of the article for the fourth time would have been inelegant, the poet here says לגאיונים with the Lamed , which serves as a circumlocution of the genitive. The Masora reckons this word among the fifteen “words that are written as one and are to be read as two.” The Kerî runs viz., לגאי יונים , superbis oppressorum ( יונים , part. Kal , like היּונה Zephaniah 3:1, and frequently). But apart from the consideration that instead of גּאי , from the unknown גּאה , it might more readily be pointed גּאי , from גּאה (a form of nouns indicating defects, contracted גּא ), this genitival construction appears to be far-fetched, and, inasmuch as it makes a distinction among the oppressors, inappropriate. The poet surely meant לגאיונים or לגּאיונים . This word גּאיון (after the form רעיון , אביון , עליון ) is perhaps an intentional new formation of the poet. Saadia interprets it after the Talmudic לגיון , legio ; but how could one expect to find such a Grecized Latin word ( λεγεών ) in the Psalter! dunash ben-Labrat (about 960) regards גאיונים as a compound word in the signification of הגּאים היונים . In fact the poet may have chosen the otherwise unused adjectival form גּאיונים because it reminds one of יונים , although it is not a compound word like דּביונים . If the Psalm is a Maccabaean Psalm, it is natural to find in לגאיונים an allusion to the despotic domination of the יונים .